Report: Double-digit growth expected for Australia health IT market

Keen interest from the Australian government toward e-health initiatives will be one of the major drivers of double-digit growth for the country's health IT market from 2009 to 2014, according to an analysis from Frost & Sullivan.

The research firm expects the Australian health IT market to experience growth from $525 million in revenue in 2009 to $858 million by 2014, marking a 38 percent rise. This growth projection is attributed primarily to the commitment by the central government toward creating a national healthcare information highway promoting safer, efficient and more equitable care through health information exchange (HIE), according to Frost & Sullivan.

As part of the initiative, in 2005, the National E-health Transition Authority (NeHTA) was established to map out the most suitable strategy plan for the implementation of countrywide e-health infrastructure and services. In the following three years, under NeHTA direction, several studies have been conducted to identify the complexity of processes, information pathways and interdependencies between different participants within the healthcare services industry.

It is expected that revenue from deployment of departmental systems in 2010 will soon reach $160 million and have a 15.3 percent compund annual growth rate. Modernization of the healthcare system, implementation of accurate and reliable systems and a shift from lengthy to short and more clinically intense hospital stays is driving investment in departmental systems for hospitals, the company stated.
 

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